Egbert Moray-Falls

A double rainbow arched above Buckingham palace and a rainbow was also seen at Windsor.

🇬🇧 Princess Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth II) in her ATS uniform, WWII, 1945

May the winds of karma blow gently in the Bardo, and may her rebirth be fortunate.

"Moral concepts practiced without understanding can be the greatest of obstacles to fulfilling the Bodhisattva's vow of uncompromising compassion. Do not cultivate virtue and renounce vice. Rather, learn to accept all things as they arise. Penetrate the essence of each experience until you have achieved the one taste. "While medicine heals and poison kills, Their ultimate essence is the same. Both positive and negative qualities Are aids on the path — The sage rejects nothing. Yet the unrealised fool Five times poisoned Is lost forever in samsara." — Mahasiddha Ghantapa

(6/6) "Four days later, it is July 6th. His Holiness's birthday is celebrated by Tibetans through prayer ceremonies, feasting and singing. There is a slight drizzle at 6:30 am as I arrive at the monastery. Rinpoche confirms that he has already performed the ritual to ensure good weather, and that I should wait to see the result. True to prediction, it becomes a beautiful morning, and is clear and sunny almost all day. "The entire monastery is planning to have an outdoor feast for dinner, and I am invited. In the courtyard, Karma Sonam is overseeing a feast of meat, pancakes, and potatoes, and we are joined by a visiting lama and a Buddhist nun. Every dish is simple and delicious. "Clouds begin to roll in, but Rinpoche gives no hint of anxiety. Suddenly, a rainbow arcs over the monastery and the monks exclaim their delight. Rainbows are a special sign of Guru Rinpoche. I look to Lama Yeshe Dorje for his reactions, and am rewarded with a wink and a broad smile. "The monsoon continues the next day as usual."

(5/6) "We finish breakfast. It is still raining as the workmen appear and stand around helplessly. Rinpoche takes a nap. By 10 am the rain begins to stow, and it is only a light drizzle by 10:15. This is ideal, as the concrete will crack if it dries too quickly. I leave the monastery to visit the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives as Rinpoche begins to supervise the work from the roof of the monastery. When I return at about 2 pm, volunteers have arrived and are already passing concrete. I join them, struggling to keep up with Rene, a seemingly inexhaustible young girl who has become a student of the Rinpoche. By 6:30 the work is done. Clearly, the weather has been subjugated, after all."

(4/6) "Lama Yeshe Dorje is not only a Nying-ma Lama, but he is also a Ngag-pa, one of a small group of yogis who specialize in unusually difficult and dangerous practices requiring control of vast powers. One example is controlling the weather; another is the dm ceremony, in which the Lama summons all of the negative forces afflicting the people who come to the ritual, appeases and disperses them. The participants are thus relieved of the obstructing forces in their lives, whether physical or mental. So dangerous is this ritual that very few will perform it. Nonetheless, the Lama tells me later, it is much more difficult to control one's mind than to control the weather. He seems to be gently suggesting that the former is a more appropriate project for me than the latter."

(3/6) "It's looking bad for the Rinpoche. He seems unconcerned. Grinning at me through the downpour, he places a trumpet to his lips. No ordinary instrument, this; it is fashioned from a human thighbone. Used in practices to control the most powerful forces of nature, this kangling is covered in silver and leather. Rinpoche blows a long, plaintive note, followed by three shorter bursts. There is an enormous crack of thunder, and it seems to pour even harder My fancy Gortex raincoat is no more comfortable than a we towel. Even Rinpoche seems chastened. We watt. He sounds another series, which echoes into the mists and down to the valley floor. "However abstract the role of weather controller may seem to us in the West, it is a vital function for an agrarian society. In the high mountain fields of Tibet, the short growing season makes drought a constant concern. Damaging hailstorms or ill-timed rain, as well as too much bowls of wet concrete from person-to-person. A large project like this requires a lot ofvolunteer help, most ofwhom can only come on a Sunday. "Twenty minutes later, the rain is just as heavy. Rinpoche returns and I dutifully join him. Again, the thigh bone trumpet is brought out and blown. Smoke drifts into our faces from the juniper wood fire that is smoldering down below, ftriodkally, a special incense is thrown on the fire at Lama's direction, and its sweet pungency adds to the aroma of the juniper. "A figure appears through the mists. It is Tra-joong, one of the monks in three-year-retreat at the monastery. He brings an umbrella for Rinpoche, and I huddle with him under its slight protection. "A final series of notes and a series of mantras are whispered, and the Lama again smiles at me,blowing through pursed lips as he extends his right arm in a circle around himself. I understand that he's pantomiming pushing the clouds away. As he invites me down to breakfast, I note that the rain is finding its way right through the fabric of the umbrella. I feel a pang of sadness for the Lama. I would have wished him success this morning. He seems confidant, however, and his appetite demonstrates that he is unconcerned. In my honor, his son, Karma Sonam, has prepared French toast. "Carefully avoiding the subject of rain, I learn that the source of the Lama's power resides in his meditational practice, which originated in Tibet during the eighth century. At that time the tantric master Padmasambhava brought Buddhism to that country and started a lineage of practice known today as Nying-ma. A large gilded image of Guru Rinpoche, as he is known to the Tibetans, graces the temple at Zilnon Kagyeling."

(2/4) "Quite sure we are the only human beings standing outside at 6:30 am in the rain, we are perched atop Zilnon Kagyeling Monastery in McLeod Ganj, roughly a mile up the hill from the palace of His Holiness. In afew days it will be His Holiness' birthday, and he has requested that Lama Yeshe Dorje ensure nice weather for the occasion. At 5:30 am I left a warm bed to climb up a muddy trail in the heaviest rain I have felt in my life, curious to see an indication of the Lama's ability."

(1/6) "Overcoming the monsoon requires almost unimaginable power. Before me, though, stands Yeshe Dorje Rinpoche, a gentle, bespectacled Tibetan lama. He also happens to be the primary weathercontroller for His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama of Tibet. "Glancing at the Rinpoche, it is hard to imagine that he can indeed marshal the necessary resources. This area has the second-largest annual rainfell in all of India. Yet he has a personal interest in altering today's weather. Construction at his monastery is to continue today, and the weather has to clear. But the weather is not obeying. It's still raining. Actually, it's pouring. Rinpoche is soaked, and so am I."

By Lama Yeshe

A meditation chamber with dead animals and shrunken human heads, Tibet, 1920.

The first post I made on this channel was in response to The Elders of the Black Sun in response to his exploration of Buddhism and discussion of Buddhist initiation in the spring of this year. Now an interesting stage has been reached in this exploration of Buddhism. Those who took it up are getting ever deeper into practice, those who come to Elders now get his style of engagement, and many who were interested at one point, or who see themselves as followers of Dharma, criticise Elders as starting a cult or profaning the name of Dharma. While Elders manner of presentation is abrasive to some, the accusations against him are founded more in prejudice than in truth. The search for real initiation and real spirituality lead to Vajrayana, and upon gaining such a realisation, the desire to share it admirably arose. Some saw this as proselytising. However, Buddhism is a religion of the Path, not of revealed truth. Hinayana takes renunciation as the path to Nirvana, Mahayana takes compassion as the path to awakening and Vajrayana takes Emptiness as the path to transformation. Tantra denies nothing, all that exists is the play of enlightenment for the fortune few who realise and practice this path. This is not arbitrary, it is not an excuse, it is the lightening way free from attachment or aversion. Although it is associated with red-robed monks today, that is merely the result of monasticism being more socially and politically expedient than the lifestyle of the Buddhist aghoris, the 84 Mahasiddhas, who founded the tradition. Vajrayana is an aghori tradition which goes to all extremes so that the mind may dwell in blissful equanimity. Such a path is not for those concerned with moral injunctions, or indeed, limitations of any sort; Bodhicitta and Emptiness are the only necessities, but for those drawn to it, enlightenment may come as a bolt from the blue.

Shariputra, you should know that at the start I took a vow, hoping to make all persons equal to me, without any distinction between us, and what I long ago hoped for has now been fulfilled. I have converted all living beings and caused them all to enter the buddha way. If when I encounter living beings I were in all cases to teach them the buddha way, those without wisdom would become confused and in their bewilderment would fail to accept my teachings. I know that such living beings have never in the past cultivated good roots but have stubbornly clung to the five desires, and their folly and craving have given rise to affliction. Their desires are the cause whereby they fall into the three evil paths, revolving wheel-like through the six paths of existence and undergoing every sort of suffering and pain. Having received a tiny form in the womb, in existence after existence they constantly grow to maturity. Persons of meagre virtue and small merit, they are troubled and beset by manifold sufferings. They stray into the dense forest of mistaken views, debating as to what exists and what does not, and in the end cling to such views, embracing all sixty-two of them.1 They are profoundly committed to false and empty doctrines, holding firmly to them, unable to set them aside. Arrogant and puffed up with self-importance, fawning and devious, insincere in mind, for a thousand, ten thousand, a million kalpas they will not hear a buddha’s name, nor will they hear the correct teaching— such people are difficult to save. For these reasons, Shariputra, I have for their sake established expedient means, preaching the way that ends all suffering, and showing them nirvana. But although I preach nirvana, this is not a true extinction. All phenomena from the very first have of themselves constantly borne the marks of tranquil extinction. — The Lotus Sutra, Ch. II, Expedient Means

"When your realization of the emptiness of all phenomena becomes as vast as the sky, your confidence in the law of causality of actions will grow proportionately, and you will become aware of the real significance of your conduct. In fact, relative truth is inseparable from absolute truth. The profound realization of the empty nature of all things has never led anyone to believe that positive actions do not create happiness and negative actions do not cause suffering". - Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

When you study the cosmology of Indo-European faith, the depth of dharmic philosophy and metaphysics, and understanding the symbolism represented and on display in temples like this, you find yourself in awe of a single photo and worshipping in adoration from just viewing it.

"All experiences of rainbow lights are the natural manifestations of your mind. All the peaceful and wrathful forms are the natural forms of your mind. All sounds are your own sounds. All lights are your own lights. Have no doubt about that. If you do feel doubt, you will be thrown into samsara. Having resolved this to be self-display, if you rest wide awake in luminous emptiness, then simply in that you will attain the three kayas and become enlightened. Even if you are cast into samsara, you won’t go there. *** "From this moment, it is very important to be without any hope and fear, clinging and fixation, toward the objects of your six sense faculties as well as toward fascination, happiness, and sorrow. From now on, if you attain stability, you will be able to assume your natural state in the bardo and become enlightened. Therefore, the most vital point is to sustain your practice undistractedly from this very moment." Padmasambhava, The Dakini Teachings